Month: August 2024

What’s the “Rhema” deal?

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One day a Bible student came across the Greek word rhema as he looked for original words. He realized that rhema means word but also business. He assumed that rhema was always something special and more than the other Greek term logos λογος. Millions have joined in, claiming to have had experienced a rhema from God mostly by special revelation. The result is that now slapping the term on (as an adjective) transforms what is happening or being said into a deeper level of truth and indicates a more reliable messaging than the Bible itself.

I have found the rhema deal: it’s a dud.  There is nothing there. Context alone determines whether logos or rhema means word or business. Both terms are used for the gospel, the texts, for a case in point, and for things.

You cannot make a slogan or maxim divine priority by slapping rhema onto it.

The words spoken by the lord – rhema or logos – are rocky foundation, spirit and life, and the partner to daily bread is life giving word, not fasting, another fad that tends to obscure feeding on the words of necessary words of the Son of God.

J A M with Doctor J 240

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Tuesday 27 August 2024

I thought I’d take a break from the usual J A M format and explain what J A M is all about.  Just a minute with Doctor J is  an attempt show that devotionals can be brief, to the point,  and packed with Biblical certainty. Most devotional articles go on for minutes, and often do so out on a limb.  They typically mishandle the Bible text that is supposed to be the framework for the devotional. . A devotional with a verse or two thrown in to make the point is seductive practice.  Like a lot of Bible translations devotional articles ignore the text for convenience and brevity.

JAM gets right down to the single word level, sometimes to the topical level.  For example, if we try to address the word atonement we would get wrapped up in Tabernacle processes, in the blood of animals and Aaronic priesthood, which we recognize as all shadow and type.  Atonement would also bring us to the proclamation of Christ as lamb of God and  the perfect solution.  The removal of sin is never a human assignment in the Messianic revelation,  so we can smile when people talk about living sinlessly.  If only we could hear them talk about the primacy of faith!  JAM will help you reduce your dependence on commentaries and interpretations that have no gospel stream. 

Y’all still doubting!

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Wars of independence do not go on for 70 years, but Israel wants to wear the title of civil society while it continues to massacre, disenfranchise, and annihilate its enemy.  Benjamin Netanyahu and his crew are warmongering racists. The Palestinian fight for basic rights had been co-opted by vengeful and warmongering agents of chaos, racism and cowardice.    Every few days since Hamas terrorized the Israelite population last October Israel orders the evacuation of Palestinians so it can hunt down Hamas operatives, and the result has been more war crimes and violations of international law.   Israel’s killing innocent people and doubts that people see a  government’s criminal behaviour and a criminal enterprise run by the Likud alliance

People in Israel and outside cannot any longer doubt  that the Israeli government is in the grip of homicidal megalomania.  South Africa, a nation familiar with racism’s ravages, has brought a credible case in the International Court of Justice against  Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people, and people are still doubting that Israel is a failed state, utterly corrupted by religious extremists and Zionists thugs.   Will I earn an  Anti-Semitic badge?